ggplot2 theme with no axes or grid

Question

I am trying to make a plot with no information beyond the data. No axes; no grid; no title; just the plot.

But I keep getting extra margins and padding that I can't remove.

library(ggplot2)
library(grid)

theme_bare <- theme(
  axis.line = element_blank(), 
  axis.text.x = element_blank(), 
  axis.text.y = element_blank(),
  axis.ticks = element_blank(), 
  axis.title.x = element_blank(), 
  axis.title.y = element_blank(), 
  #axis.ticks.length = unit(0, "lines"), # Error 
  axis.ticks.margin = unit(c(0,0,0,0), "lines"), 
  legend.position = "none", 
  panel.background = element_rect(fill = "gray"), 
  panel.border = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.major = element_blank(), 
  panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), 
  panel.margin = unit(c(0,0,0,0), "lines"), 
  plot.background = element_rect(fill = "blue"),
  plot.margin = unit(c(0,0,0,0), "lines")
)

ggplot() + 
  geom_area (data=economics, aes(x = date, y = unemploy), linetype=0) +
  theme_bare

Produces this image:

What I want is this:

I can't figure out how to get rid of the blue and make the dark gray flush with the edges.

Could any one offer some advice?

Answer 1

Here is the way to plot only the panel region:

p <- ggplot() + geom_area (data=economics, aes(x = date, y = unemploy), linetype=0) +
  scale_x_date(expand = c(0,0)) + scale_y_continuous(expand = c(0,0)) +
  theme(line = element_blank(),
        text = element_blank(),
        title = element_blank())

gt <- ggplot_gtable(ggplot_build(p))
ge <- subset(gt$layout, name == "panel")

grid.draw(gt[ge$t:ge$b, ge$l:ge$r])

Answer 2

try

last_plot() + theme(axis.ticks.length = unit(0.001, "mm")) + labs(x=NULL, y=NULL)

you may want to file a bug for the 0 tick length.

Answer 3

From ggplot2_2.0.0 you can use theme_void:

ggplot() + 
  geom_area(data = economics, aes(x = date, y = unemploy), linetype = 0) +
  theme_void()